China's judicial trials on intellectual property rights (IPR) cases are working in line with international practice after the country joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) three years ago.

"If we say Chinese people talked about the importance of intellectual property rights on paper and agreements before China joined the WTO, today, people have come to realize IPR exists in their daily life when they hear of copyright disputes in things like background music in hotels, coffee bars or other recreation centres," said Jiang Zhipei, chief judge of the IPR Tribunal of China's Supreme People's Court.

Jiang said IPR protection in China concentrates on two targets: setting up a system to encourage technological innovation, and providing a better climate for investors.

"If we fail to protect properly the intellectual property rights of foreign investors and companies, then we are not qualified to talk about the opening-up policy," he said.

Jiang said courts across China have seen a rising number of IPR-related cases after the country's accession to the WTO. Each year, the number of IPR cases handled in courts has amounted to more than 9,000 compared with the 6,000-odd a few years ago.

He attributed this to the increasing awareness of IPR protection among the public.

Last year, nationwide courts heard nearly 10,000 IPR cases, and copyright disputes ranked first.

Over the past three years, the country has seen an increasing number of IPR violations, especially trademark, copyright piracy and unfair competition, Jiang said.

About 97 per cent of the 10,000 IPR disputes have been between mainland companies or individuals, the remaining 3 per cent related to foreign companies and companies of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

China's accession to the WTO has not only helped improve people's IPR protection awareness, but also widened the range of IPR protection.

Nearly all aspects of social activities may touch on the issue of intellectual property rights due to rapid technological development, said Jiang.

IPR special judges have significantly improved their skills over the past three years.

The Supreme People's Court has set up a judge college, and higher people's courts in the country's provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have all set up judge training centres to train judges each year, according to Jiang.

"Chinese companies or institutions face a fierce challenge as more and more countries resort to IPR to defend their interests. Those who use the IPR weapon better gain better advantages while those who ignore IPR will fail in the market," he said.

Jiang said that among IPR disputes related to foreign companies in recent years, domestic companies appeared to be much more than foreign companies on the defender's side.

Jiang said the number of IPR disputes related to foreigners may increase in the next few years. He reminded domestic companies and personnel to work harder to develop independent IPR technologies and products, and to use the IPR system to stop their achievements from being infringed.

More awareness

Jiang's views were echoed by Zhang Guangliang, deputy chief judge of the IPR Division of the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court.

"Although only a very small part of foreign-related IPR cases received by the court are raised by Chinese, more and more Chinese individuals and companies have begun to safeguard their intellectual rights by laws," he said.

For example, the court last year ruled Dow Jones must pay 405,684 yuan (US$49,000) in compensation to Guan Dongsheng, a Chinese calligrapher, for copyright infringement.

According to the judgment, Guan, a professor at Central University of Nationalities, gave a calligraphic painting of "Dao," the first character of Dow Jones' Chinese translation, to the US company's chief executive officer as a gift in 1994.

Without his permission, the multi-national media giant late in 1994 began to use his handwriting as Dow Jones' corporate symbol on its website, advertisements and business cards.

Copyright Law says Dow Jones did not acquire the copyright even though it was presented with the original version of the handwriting.

Zhang's division is one of the special IPR divisions set up as the first batch of cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. The three cities appointed competent, specialized and experienced judges for the IPR tribunals at the very beginning to be better equipped for complicated IPR cases.

The Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court is the only local court in China that handles administrative patent and trademark cases, because the Patent Re-examination Committee of the State Intellectual Property Office and the Trademark Appraisement Committee of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce are within the court's jurisdiction.

"Prior to China's entry to the WTO in 2001, the Patent Re-examination Committee has the final decisive rights over utility model and design patents," Zhang said.

"In the past, only when people had disagreements over innovation patent could they appeal to court," he said.

"But with the revision of the Patent Law in 2000 to meet the requirements of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, all three types of patent can depend on court as the organization of final judgment," Zhang said.

Patents in China are classified into inventions, utility models and designs.

The same conditions apply to trademark cases, the judge said.

Before 2001, when China revised its Trademark Law and entered the WTO, the Trademark Appraisement Committee of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce had the final decisive right over trademarks.

"But the revision of the law granted the court the final say," he said.

The amount of administrative IPR cases with the two committees as defendants increased sharply after China's entry to the world trade body, Zhang said.

(China Daily 11/08/2004 page5)